Unicorn (Marvel)
Unicorn is the codename of multiple supervillains in the Marvel Comics universe. The first Unicorn (Milos Masaryk) debuted in Tales of Suspense vol. 1 #56 (August 1964) and was created by Stan Leeand Jack Kirby. Fictional character biography Milos Masaryk was a Soviet intelligence agent assigned to track down the original Crimson Dynamo, who defects to America after being tricked by Iron Man. Wearing technology designed by the Dynamo, Masaryk gives himself the alias the "Unicorn" and battles Iron Man after Iron Man catches him spying on Stark Industries. Although Iron Man crashes the Unicorn's plane, the villain manages to escape.[1] The Unicorn was among the villains affected by Doctor Doom's high-frequency emotion charger. As a result, the Unicorn went to the Baxter Building to attack the Fantastic Four at the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm. He once fought Iron Man and was defeated with one punch. He teamed with Beetle,Electro, Mandarin, and the Melter against Cyclops and Iceman, but the resultant combination of their power blasts knocked them all out, and they were sent back to the immediate past by Reed Richards with no memory of attack.[2] The Unicorn later allies himself with Count Nefaria for financial reasons, and participates in Nefaria's attack on Washington, D.C., during which he trapped it in a forcefield he could prevent the flow of air through, being sent to capture Cyclops, which he does with help from the Eel defeating Iceman, but he is stopped by the X-Men.[3] He then undergoes experimental conditioning to augment his powers. With increased strength, he battles Iron Man once more after attempting to extort money from the U.S. Congress, but he is again defeated.[4] The process leaves the Unicorn with "accelerated cellular deterioration", and he is taunted with a cure by the Red Ghost in exchange for help against Iron Man. However, once it becomes evident that the Red Ghost has lied, the Unicorn aids Iron Man and later escapes.[5] He gives up on the Red Ghost after he failed to find a cure.[6] The master villain, the Mandarin, makes a similar promise to the Unicorn and deploys him against Iron Man. On two more separate occasions, Unicorn's battle with Iron Man ends in Unicorn's defeat. In the first instance, the Mandarin's consciousness becomes entrapped in the Unicorn's body,[7] but the Mandarin's mind is later freed from the Unicorn's body.[8] Using the alias "The Other", the Titanium Man uses the Unicorn against Iron Man who is finally able to capture Masaryk. In a dramatic turn, the very moment of his capture sees Masaryk slip into a life-threatening coma.[9] Iron Man takes Masaryk to theAvengers Mansion where teammate Yellowjacket wakes Masaryk and cures him of his debilitating disease. The process has the result of driving Masaryk insane, and a disorientated Unicorn inadvertently activates the hidden robot Arsenal. The Unicorn is stunned by the robot — which Iron Man drives off — and then placed in stasis pending a cure for his mental illness.[10] Months later, Masaryk is freed when a fire breaks out at Stark Enterprises.[11] He resumes the identity of the Unicorn and finds and attacks Iron Man once again. Still insane, the Unicorn refuses to believe that "The Other" was a lie, and decides to walk back to the Soviet Union via the ocean to find him. A severely weakened Iron Man is powerless to stop him and can only watch as the Unicorn apparently drowns in the Atlantic Ocean.[12] The Unicorn is later revived by the entity the Beyonder to fight with a new version of the Lethal Legion. The Unicorn is given a true third eye on a stalk with energy projection capabilities in lieu of a suit. Powers and abilities Originally, the Unicorn had no superhuman powers; his helmet was the source of his abilities. However, the Unicorn has undergone mutagenic radiation treatments which gave him superhuman strength and endurance. The Unicorn's soft tissues are dozens of times harder than those of an ordinary human, making him highly resistant to physical injury. The process which endowed the Unicorn with superhuman powers caused accelerated cellular deterioration, which eventually severely affected his sanity and physical health. He wears headgear equipped with an energy projector that tunes to various frequency and power levels. This allows him to project concussive energy blasts (electron or neutron beams), lasers, and microwave energy. It also allows him to project a force field and to levitate objects magnetically. He also wears a rocket belt equipped with twin, high-efficiency electric micro turbines that allow him to fly; the belt also contains the power supply for his helmet which consists of an array of nuclear-powered thermo-electric cells. The Unicorn also wears body armor of unknown composition. His equipment was designed by Professor Anton Vanko. The Unicorn is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, having received training in armed and unarmed combat by the KGB. He is highly proficient in the use of firearms. He is highly fluent in both English and Russian, and has received KGB training in intelligence techniques. Role in Ultima In Ultima, Unicorn is a criminal goon for the Organization's Neo Masters of Evil and Maggia Crime Family. To get an understanding on what Lodo has planned for Milos, read Unicorn's entry from "Villains with Potential": "I love villains who are complete nutballs. Not psychopaths per se, but just plain nuts. That, in a nutshell, is what I like about the Unicorn. Poor Milos Masaryk is a born pawn, bouncing from one master to the next, and displaying almost fanatical devotion to each. He's a loon, but a loon with a lot of power, especially considering the number of times he's been the subject of experiments and cosmic tampering. Whether you're a fan of the pre-third eyeball or post Unicorn, Masaryk is essentially a walking death ray. The Unicorn is a tool, to be used by a master-planner type. He's easily manipulatable, amazingly powerful, and incoherent enough to confuse even the most powerful telepath. Too, his madness adds a touch of pathos to his character, which is always handy for a writer looking to put the screws to his readers. Essentially, he's the perfect niche-character for a long-running storyline. He shows up to cause damage and manoeuvre the hero into a position of weakness or danger, so that the mastermind may strike. There's a certain value in a character like that, at least IMO. The Unicorn provides a decent threat for most any character or team, while not being what you'd call continuity-heavy. He can be plugged in with minimum effort on the part of a smart writer, and can set up a number of potential subplots just by wandering around blowing the crap out of things." (Cited from Villains with Potential: Unicorn) Category:Antagonists Category:Organization Category:Neo Masters of Evil Category:Henchmen Category:Maggia